Rethink what DCS is. I dare you!

[wilbur81]

13 hours ago, SloppyDog said:

The thing  ED focus is on releasing module after module because that is where their expertise is at. 

 

This is simply not true. They release modules to make money...period. Meanwhile, they're doing awesome work 'under the hood' with a small staff. BMS (though amazing in its own right) is a bit of a red-herring here. DCS is almost infinitely more complex. ED has one major problem as far as I'm concerned: They're spread too thin. The amount of deep content they offer is quite staggering. No one is ultimately paying them to develop Dyn Camp., Weather, ATC, etc.

 

Edited 2 hours ago by wilbur81

[av8orDave]

I've said before and I will say again... it is a broken and unsustainable business model. That is at the core of all the DCS "issues". 

ED gets an upfront payment for an early-access module packaged with the promise of future development efforts bringing the module to completion. Before that module is ever complete, another early access module is launched, and they get another upfront payment, which is necessary and they surely need to be able to continue to pay their staff. With each module launch, the amount of work required to bring the early access modules to completion, maintain the existing modules, and work on the core grows exponentially, all while needing to launch *another* early access module just to have an ongoing revenue stream to sustain the future efforts. It is crazy, and it doesn't work.

The amount of maintenance required on existing modules and early access modules for which ED no longer collects revenue will eventually become unsustainable.

Edited 1 hour ago by av8orDave

[dmatsch]

1 hour ago, av8orDave said:

I've said before and I will say again... it is a broken and unsustainable business model. That is at the core of all the DCS "issues". 

ED gets an upfront payment for an early-access module packaged with the promise of future development efforts bringing the module to completion. Before that module is ever complete, another early access module is launched, and they get another upfront payment, which is necessary and they surely need to be able to continue to pay their staff. With each module launch, the amount of work required to bring the early access modules to completion, maintain the existing modules, and work on the core grows exponentially, all while needing to launch *another* early access module just to have an ongoing revenue stream to sustain the future efforts. It is crazy, and it doesn't work.

The amount of maintenance required on existing modules and early access modules for which ED no longer collects revenue will eventually become unsustainable.

I can't remember if there's a name for that.  Ponoo .. pizzagate .. fonzi ...  It began with a "P"...

[dmatsch]

6 hours ago, cfrag said:

 

...

The constant stream of exceedingly low-quality additions to DCS Core (save state, QAG, warehouse API, cargo UX), combined with a consistent lack of central improvements (AI, ATC, Mission Scripting API, UX) after more than a decade of feedback has cooled my enthusiasm for DCS significantly - to a point where I no longer can be bothered to contribute (I have occasionally contributed in the past). The tools are terrible, DCS core seems to deteriorate, and the community managers simply aren't. 

Hopefully the fine people at ED can turn DCS around, and re-kindle our love.

This.  Totally this.  We all love DCS.  We want it to succeed.  Hell, I've based a good chunk of my future retirement plans on it!  When veteran and amazing module developers like cfrag -- whom I have the ultimate respect for here in the community -- is getting frustrated and jumping ship, it brings great concern to the future of this software.

Without cfrag and other VOLUNTEERS like him, DCS would have been a dead, empty void a decade ago.  The fact that ED treated them like unpaid interns and never valued their feedback NOR integrated any of their mods (paying them, of course) is disappointing. 

I also, have invested a good chunk of money in modules and maps.  Don't care if the core is free, that should be the MOST WORKING part of the whole sim, otherwise the modules are useless. 

 

PS:  Notice most of the ones in this thread and others with torches and pitchforks for DCS/ED critical topics are ones with 1-2K++ posts?  

[av8orDave]

11 minutes ago, dmatsch said:

I can't remember if there's a name for that.  Ponoo .. pizzagate .. fonzi ...  It began with a "P"...

I think the solution, unpopular as it may be, is a subscription model. Don't want to pay the subscription? Then you get the game as it stands at the time the subscription model is implemented with no further development work. 

I'll add that as critical as I may sound, I love DCS and have played since its inception (and earlier with the original SU-27 Flanker games). I have nearly every ED and 3rd party module, and every map (except for South Atlantic). I'm one of DCS's most loyal customers, but I firmly believe the current business model will result in an unmanageable "ecosystem" of software with constantly growing maintenance needs with no ongoing revenue stream to sustain it.

Edited 14 minutes ago by av8orDave